Regarding the “20-year mistake” he made while leading Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg has been transparent.
In his second year at Harvard University, the 40-year-old started creating what would later become the social media platform Facebook. Today, he is chairman of the company’s parent platform Meta, which also owns Instagram, and is regarded as one of the world’s most successful businessmen.
Despite his success and billionaire status, Zuckerberg hasn’t been without setbacks. He regrets one particular error more than others, albeit it’s not exactly what you might anticipate.
In the process of becoming one of the wealthiest persons on the planet, Mark Zuckerberg’s career has not been without controversy. From data harvesting to user privacy violations to whistleblowers accusing him of not doing enough to shield minors from exploitation on his platforms, there has been plenty of controversy throughout his career.
Who could forget Zuckerberg’s encounter with Donald Trump, the former US president?
According to The Independent, Facebook was accused of disseminating false material about the 2016 presidential election on its platform, and the former president has repeatedly asserted—without providing any supporting evidence—that the company’s founder meddled in the 2020 presidential election.
According to Politico, Trump claims in his upcoming book that Zuckerberg attempted to influence the election to benefit Joe Biden, who took office on January 20, 2021.
It seems that the more “political” aspect of Zuckerberg’s job throughout the last 20 years of his career is the source of his greatest regret.
In a conversation with producers of the Acquired podcast Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal on Tuesday, September 10, at the Chase Center, Mark Zuckerberg acknowledged that Facebook had made “a lot of mistakes” over the years.
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But ‘accepting other people’s view of some of the things that they were arguing that [Facebook] were doing wrong or were responsible for that [he doesn’t] truly think [Facebook] were’ responsible for is one of the things that he looks back on and’regret[s]’.
He went further, as reported by Platformer: “When it comes to political issues, there are those who are seeking attention for themselves and those who are acting in good faith to discover issues and fix them.
In addition, if you hold the opinion that “I’m going to take responsibility for all of this”—many people essentially hold social media and the tech sector accountable for all of the societal ills—and if we hold the opinion that “We’re really going to do our part to fix this stuff,” I believe that many people just took that and said, “Oh, you’re taking responsibility for that? Permit me to kick you for additional things.”
Zuckerberg made a decision: “To be honest, I think we ought to have been more explicit and firm about the things in which we felt that we truly contributed and the ones in which we didn’t.”
“And my guess is if the IPO was a year and a half mistake, I think that the political miscalculation was a 20 year mistake.”
Make of it what you will, but it seems like Zuckerberg is alluding to his feud with Trump or past instances in which Facebook has encountered criticism.
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